by John Foster
The message screen had dozens of queries, reminders, and notifications of looming deadlines. Nothing urgent and he switched off the screen and made for his quarters. As he sat in bed, he thought of what Leda had last told him at the camp fire, that it “would be a fierce day tomorrow and that they would need donuts.” He smiled and turned off the light hoping there would be donuts and that maybe Madison would make them. He hoped Leda’s reference to ‘fierce’ was about the heat and not anything else.
“West! West! Wake up there’s somebody in the burial area messing with it,” yelled Theo as he shook West in his bunk.
Groggy and unsure of what was happening, West opened his eyes and saw Theo, his face red and his eyes bulging, looking down at him. Seeing him awake Theo repeated his thundering mantra that “Someone is messing with the burial, we’ve got to stop them.”
West struggled to get out of the bedding, his head down and rubbing his eyes, and sat up pushing Theo back, muttering, “give me some air, and what did you say about the burial?”
“Someone is down at the burial and messing with it.”
“I heard that already, how do you know?”
“I heard the monitor come on at workstation in my tent and got up to see what would have caused it to start recording. I saw some character in a head cloth digging around the burial,” said Theo who paced as he recounted what he saw.
“What??” West sat up, now wide awake, wiping at his face as he did so, and swung his legs to the side of the bed looking side to side for his pants and boots. “Who is it?” demanded West.
“I have no idea, his face is hidden, but based on his clothing, it’s not one of our people and not one of the locals either. But who knows for sure,” Theo was panting as he coughed out this last part.
“Grab a couple of other people and meet me at the Hole,” West said as he pulled on his pants and started to zip up his boots.
“Who do you want?”
“Hell, I don’t care, get Volkum and Dickens and meet me there.”
As he turned to go Theo saw West take down the old 45 revolver his grandfather had carried.
“Hey, you gonna take that?” gasped Theo who was steadily focused on the oversized pistol and realizing that things were going serious quickly.
“Are you kidding, of course I am. That guy is destroying our information and compromising our ability to find what might be a very nasty weapon.”
“Weapon?” Theo asked, he had stopped moving, his eyes widening, and his mouth slightly open, “Damn, you’re right. I’ll get the crew,” and he raced out of the room.
West had pulled the weapon out of its frame and keyed off the trigger lock with his thumb print. His eyes blinking as he considered what he was doing as he pulled out a box of cartridges from his cargo locker at the end of his bed, and started loading the old gun. He knew it would work but the thought of using it made him worry his lower lip. He stuck the heavy old weapon in his waistband. He grabbed a flash light and left the room, dodging through the corridor and ran to the ramp.
West felt the electric screen buzz as he raced through the ship’s cargo door and felt the cold air grip him as he ran to the hole. His vision adjusted as he slowed to get his bearings and turned to his right to make out the low glow of the lights that shone up from the tunnel.
He could see pole lights flickering on in the main camp where the rest of the workers stayed. He could see people fumbling with their shoes and boots as they struggled to get out of their tents, flaps moving with them as they exited. He could see Theo and Thomas moving with a large portable light and to his dismay Madison running next to them with a determined look on her face. Volkum and Malena were right behind them and West could see that Volkum was struggling to loop his large bowie knife onto his belt.
West arrived at the hole first and peered down into it seeing the soft yellow glow of the globe lights in the tunnel below. Theo and Madison quickly arrived and gathered around him. Other crew members soon swelled the ranks and West told them to quiet down and listen. There was a loud pop from below and the chatter stopped instantly and everyone looked to the hole that had suddenly gone dark.
“Volkum, go get some more handy lights and hurry,” asked West.
Volkum, having finally attached his knife nodded his head and hurried off to the supply tent with Malena following behind.
“What was that noise?” Theo said as he gestured down into the hole.
“Probably the lights being popped to put them out.” West knelt down near the entrance and shined his handy light through the hole with the light casting sharp dark shadows through the ladder rungs. West pivoted the light to see if there was anyone in close but couldn’t see any movement.
West looked over his shoulder and called “Leda, go to Theo’s work area and see if you can see anything in there on his monitors and take someone with you to run messages to me.”
Leda nodded enthusiastically and clutching at Anna she pulled her with her telling her she would be her personal messenger. Anna’s response was to roll her eyes but said okay as they ran to Theo’s’ work station.
“I don’t see anything,” West said as he shifted around to start down the ladder. “Theo hold the light at this angle,” said West as he shone it down the corridor to where the burial was.
“Roger that chief,” said Theo as took the light and steadied it.
West pulled the gun from his waist band, grabbed the ladder, felt it wobble a bit, and then started down, his gun held out to the direction of the burial. One of the crew grabbed the top of the ladder and held it firm. West was lost in darkness as he passed in front of the light. He couldn’t see a thing except in his peripheral vision around the hole where the crew members stood bent over with some looking frightened and others angry. He smiled, thinking angry was good right now because some idiot thief was possibly destroying an incredible find.
He moved down the ladder as quickly as he could, watching the darkness down the tunnel. He could only see a dozen feet or less with tangled cables and wiring strung about in the foreground as if vandalized, which he guessed it was.
“All right Theo hand me the light and come on down.”
Theo answered by handing down the light and then grunting as he climbed down. He was holding something but West couldn’t see what it was.
West was able to peer farther down the tunnel now and could see the burial area but it was too far to see it any real detail. He started to move down the corridor but Theo called out to him to wait.
“Don’t be in too much of a hurry, West, he can’t go anywhere, you know as well as I do that there’s only one entrance.”
West stopped and looked back to Theo and nodded reluctantly. “You’re right, he’s trapped in here.” Realizing that the thief or whatever the person was couldn’t get away, West was relieved and determined to get the person and assess the damage. West then noticed that Theo was carrying a baseball bat and didn’t remember ever seeing it before.
Theo saw West looking at it, smiled, and then said, “parting gift from one of my ex-girlfriends.”
“I see........” West smiled at Theo and lost it just as quickly when he turned and looked back down the corridor wondering what the guy was doing back in the tunnel.
The ladder started to rattle as someone started coming down. West could see it was Volkum who had descended and with him had several handy lights, one of which was attached to his belt with the knife. He smiled and handed West a smaller light and took the large one from West and said, “I’ll handle the lights while Theo takes the bat and you the gun.”
The ladder rumbled again and West realized that he didn’t want a big party down here because they didn’t know if the thief was armed. As he started to yell at the person coming down he realized it was Madison who was soon followed by Thomas.
“You shouldn’t come down here Madison.”
She grimaced, her mouth set, and said, “I’ll handle the lights and you all take the weapons of mass destruction, like that
toothpick Theo is holding, that antique firearm that might kill us when it explodes, and that pig sticker that Volkum is holding.” She took the flash light from Volkum and shined it down the corridor while holding it to one side and crouching. Thomas stood behind her, his boyish face flushed, and dark eyes flashing in the uneven light.
West watched Madison and Thomas for a moment, then said “Okay, wait here.” West climbed up to the top of the hole and found the rest of crew crowded about. Malena was standing next to the ladder as if guarding it. “Malena, you’re in charge up here. Don’t let anybody down here except a designated messenger. Have some of the crew empty one of the supply crates and rig it up so that we can lock it from the outside. Make sure it’s big enough to hold a man. Got it? When you find Dickens have him report to me, okay?”
“Got it.” She eyed the big pistol west was holding in his right hand on the ladder rung. West then retreated down the ladder and told the crew to stay to one side and keep quiet. Madison and Thomas had moved down the corridor a little way and were watching the wispy trails of smoke from the broken glow lamps.
“We can wait him out and then take him when he gets tired of sitting back in there,” Volkum said as he walked down to where Madison was positioned. West considered this and was weighing the pros and cons of waiting or going after the thief but that thought was interrupted by Madison.
“There’s another way out now.” She spoke slowly and confidently as if there was no doubt in her mind.
“Now?” asked Volkum, his forehead furrowing as he considered what she said.
“Yes, our skunk has an exit hole and it’s down that corridor,” said Madison as she raised up and stood, her face turning to West. “We’ve got to go after him now.”
“How do you know that?” West asked.
She turned from facing West and pointed her light at the smoking glow lights. “See those smoke trails from the busted globes? They’re moving away from us down the corridor and that can only happen if there’s an opening down there drawing them in.”
They all turned and looked at the tendrils of smoke moving into the darkness away from them.
A large sleek AtVac, with an almost mirrored surface lay nestled in the rocky slopes of the Gobi Plains. The ship was a military transport with open ramps that had hover vehicles already pulled out in a convoy formation and manned by Sovar commandoes with its commander standing by the open ramp and looking out over the arid landscape. Dragaan was a tall white skinned man dressed in unadorned military black. His face was like an ice sculpture, implacable and perpetually frozen. He stood on a boulder, strong, and with dark blond close-cropped hair, thin tight lips, the epitome of strength, the achievement of generations of his forebears, and the struggle to find a new life in a totally hostile land. The Sovar had been founded almost 200 years ago amidst confusion and chaos of a little accident that had a far-reaching touch. But then again, there were no little accidents in space.
In 1973, a primitive rocket had been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to bring the Soviet Union one of its greatest triumphs, the beginning of the first interplanetary ship yard in the Solar System. There had been no fanfare, no announcements, just a series of launches of its largest missiles deep into Terran orbit. The effort had not gone unnoticed and there was no reply to the queries that flowed in when they started. As the years went by, a total of five giant Blad rockets had blasted off, each successful, and on target, to earth orbit. They were manned by a crew of men and women, 166 in all, in the prime of their lives, the best of their brain trust and the most capable. Their mission was to establish the first colony of humans in the solar system. Steady advancements in modular design and metallurgy had provided the structural means to build housing and working facilities in a hostile environment. Breakthroughs in micro biology, hydroponics, and miniaturization had coalesced into the means for attempting to break free of the restraints of earthbound politics and opinion.
Once Terran orbit had been achieved the rockets had rendezvoused and in a series of space walks and micro maneuvering had been unified in the creation of the largest space ship ever built in orbit or on the earth. It had taken a total of 49 years. The central tube was the living and working quarters and was 700 meters long, built of two of the fuel rockets that had launched them into orbit. Two of the other rockets would provide the propulsion for the ship, one for storage and the other for plants and a food processing station. While unwieldy and startlingly box like, the ship was ready to start its voyage. On earth, the various governments continued to demand explanations, but none were forthcoming other than it was simply an experiment to study life in space. There was nothing else said or reported.
The nominal commander of the ship, Valdimir Bosky, was one of the crowning achievements of Soviet education, gene manipulation, and cold blooded efficient brutality. His mission was to make this voyage and colony a success and nothing would be allowed to slow, hinder, or stop the project. He had the power of a ship captain of sailing days, life and death, was in the snap of his fingers and his enforcement teams were highly trained and willing to execute his orders without question. It was on May 27, 2222 that the orders were given to move to their initial destination, the little moon of Phobos the larger of the two Martian moons which was considered the ideal way point for the beginning of the mission. The plan was to enter orbit, establish a small base on the moon and then, using a space ferry, they would start to establish their new colony on Mars.
When the orders came, the ship, the Sposobnyy or Capable, started its journey and one year and 10 months later, it arrived in orbit around Phobos. While Bosky was the captain of the ship, the nominal leader was Admiral Vincent, a coolly efficient naval aviator who had developed the space ferry for delivering personnel and supplies to the new colony. Vincent had an impressive record in engineering and for testing new aircraft and space related transportation. He had one very important attribute, in addition to his other skills, he wasn’t afraid of anything, and risk was his way of life.
As the ship pulled into orbit, the scanners, then primitive but capable of detecting metals, and other obvious construction materials suited to space, picked up a large anomaly on the dark side of Phobos. Bosky ordered a team of scientists to investigate using a small ship used for construction in space. The space monkey as it was called lived up to its name because of its ability to literally bound from one point to another in an almost leaping fashion. As the little ship neared the almost invisible mass of darkness, they realized it was a huge AtVac seemingly drifting but anchored in some fashion to the moon. They relayed their suspicions to Sposobnyy and Bosky ordered them to start to survey the outside of the alien craft. The mission to colonize was shelved to study this amazing opportunity that had fallen into their hands. After an initial reconnaissance, it was evident that the alien vessel was largely intact with only minor breaches from repeated barrages of meteors over the eons. While it was not evident what happened to the ship nor, indeed, what happened to the crew, the ship appeared to be immensely old. The pitting of the ship‘s surface was extreme but the metals used to make it had more than justified their cost in that the ship was still intact.
It became evident that there were hundreds of rooms, living areas, and bays for the preparation of food and other substances that the colonists used in the alien vessel. Bosky renamed it The Red Banner, as it would signal a new reality in the power dominance on earth, once they returned. Bosky decided to return to the earth in the new ship which would be the mightiest ship ever seen. Bosky realized he was going to be a major player from that point on. He was no longer answerable to his Terran bound superiors but his own conscience. Slow meticulous work by the engineers found that many of the systems still worked and one by one they found workarounds that would allow the vessel to operate again. They left navigation and ship command alone while they worked to create a living space within the new ship. After almost a year of work, Bosky was ready to learn to fly this new wonder. The Sposobnyy was now
operating with a skeleton crew, almost deserted by the rest, as the entire complement had moved to new quarters in The Red Banner. Vincent was responsible for understanding and making the ship maneuver and he took this on with a relish that bordered on obsession. Work was carried out around the clock, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to achieve understanding of the propulsion and guidance systems. Methodically, the different elements and components were examined and studied until they were known and fully functional. Increasingly, Vincent was becoming impatient with the pace of the investigation and repeatedly asked that Bosky prepare to leave orbit and return to earth. There were many arguments about the risks and timing of actually activating the navigation systems. They really didn’t understand them. Bosky knew what everything did but he wasn’t sure of how they would operate as a system once it was fully operational. The computers that ran the ship were similar to their own but there were many subsystems that they simply wouldn’t understand until they were tested as a unit.
On September 1, 2225, Vincent ordered Bosky to activate the ship’s navigation system and hook it back up to the ship’s engines. Vincent and Bosky looked over the console at each other and while full of trepidation, Vincent, ever the risk taker, pulled the switch to fully turn on the ship. Thousands of lights blinked into existence, the science officers at their stations were awed at the pace of power up, the thrum of sounds, and lights as the ship became active.